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A gem of alternate history by one of SF's brightest rising stars; a searing journey into a very different yet strangely familiar North America . . .

In anno domini 714, seven Catholic bishops fleeing the Muslim invasion of Spain set sail across the Western Ocean. There, in a new world, they founded seven legendary cities—and a legendary Christian empire.

Now, twelve centuries later, war rages across that new world: a culture of war, a clash of civilizations, as the armies of the Caliphate of al-Andalus invade a failed state become a terrorist safe haven, breeding ground for global reconquistadores.

Doctor-Lieutenant Chie Nakada is a physician with the Relief Ministry of the Regency of Japan. In the war of Muslims and Christians, Buddhist Japan is officially neutral. But when a mysterious weapon of mass destruction razes the Muslim—occupied city of Espirito Santo, Nakada is tasked to travel up the great river Acuamagna, seek out the messianic leader of the Christian resistance, and put a permanent end to that leader's apocalyptic delusions.